French Republic

The Values of the French Republic

France is technically a republic — the current French government is the 5th incarnation of a republic since the monarchy was disbanded, so on official documents you will often see it written that way. The First French Republic came about after the French Revolution in 1789. The French Revolution sought to decrease the inequalities between the poor tiers état and the rich aristocracy, monarchy and clergy. The current Constitution is the Fifth Republic was created by Charles de Gaulle in 1958 and came into operation on 8 th January 1959.

The values that were highlighted by these revolutionaries stemmed from the writings of the Lumières, a generation of 18th century writers including Rousseau and Voltaire, who highlighted, above all, equality and liberty. These two values form the first part of the French motto: liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, fraternity). The last part came about later, after several other failed versions including liberté, égalité ou la mort (liberty, equality or death).

Learn more about the values of the French Republic by reading works written by the Lumières, like Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes  by Jean-Jacques Rousseau or the entry on liberty in Voltaire’s  Dictionnaire philosophique.

Learn more about the history of the values of the French Republic on the official website of the Elysée Palace, which has an entry for the motto.

Learning about these values, particularly the way that they developed during the French Revolution, can help you understand many French current events. For example, it will definitely offer you some insight on the Charlie Hebdo shooting in 2015 and subsequent reaction in the French news media (see second topic that follows).

Watch:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8RZm5XtgH0

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKshaIn1log

Read:

• https://www.gouvernement.fr/en/symbols-of-the-french-republic

• https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/coming-to-france/france-facts/symbols-of-the-republic/article/liberty-equality-fraternity

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36775634

Sample questions:

• To what extent do the values of the French Republic still have meaning in 21 st century France?

• Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, … should Laïcité be added ?

• How did the French revolution support and violate the motto of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité?

The Secular State in France

With the events concerning the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shootings, the idea of the secular state has been highlighted frequently in the media.

France is a truly secular state in the way that the United States, for example, is not. While the United States enjoys some separation of Church and State, in France, religion is considered, both culturally and politically, to be a private matter. This idea dates back to the French Revolution, when the Church and the State — in this case, the monarchy — were inextricably intertwined. The King was said to be chosen by God, and the clergy held enormous power.

While the Church and State were not completely separated at this point in time, the series of revolutions and revolts that would continue throughout the 19th century ensured that, by the 20th century, France was completely secular.

This means that today, in France, it would be unheard of to hear the President bless the French people. On a smaller scale, anyone working for the State, including in French public schools, post offices and police prefectures, is forbidden from wearing any outward sign of religion, including crosses, yarmulkes and religious head coverings such as burqas and turbans.

You can learn much more about France as a secular State simply by reading current events in the newspaper as discussions of Charlie Hebdo continue. Here are a few ideas on the

topic:

• The history of secularism in France

• What is a secular state?

• The definition of French secularism according to the French government

Watch:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmhnyZ3XZQI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx50d_aqaUo
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIdBu-WmCsE

Read:

• https://www.institutmontaigne.org/en/blog/laicite-why-french-secularism-so-hard-grasp

• https://www.thelocal.fr/20180531/six-rules-from-the-french-governments-new-school-secularity-guidelines

• https://www.france24.com/en/20191030-french-move-to-extend-ban-on-wearing-religious-symbols-sparks-fears-of-radical-secularism

Sample questions:

• To what extent is it time for France to abandon Laïcité?

• To what extent does Laïcité work in France?

Fun bite … genders and homophones

3 singular masculine nouns in French become feminine in the plural:

• Orgue

• Délice

• Amour

   But why? It is simply more poetic

   Do any singular feminine nouns in French become masculine in the plural?

  → Un os → des eaux (think homophonically !) … je taquine !

Some French nouns change meaning depending on the gender:

• Le livre/la livre

• Le critique/la critique

• Le tour/la tour

• Le voile/la voile

There are also some interesting homophones:

• Le pot/la peau

• Une amande/une amende

• Au/aux/(l’)eau

• Auteur/la hauteur

• Le bout/la boue

• Cent/le sang/le sens/sans

• Un ver/vers/le vers/vert/le verre

• Le compte/le comte/la conte

• Dans/la dent

• Le foie/la foi/la fois

• Guère/la guerre

• Leur/le leurre/l’heure

• La mer/le(la)maire/la mère

• Le mur/mûr/la mûre

• Pair/le père

• Les pâtes/la pâte/la patte

• Plus tôt/plutôt

• La reine/le renne

• Le sel/la selle/celle

A bonus fun bite …

Subjunctivitis !

Bien que je ne croie pas qu’il soit nécessaire que je fasse mes devoirs, je crains que mon prof ne s’attende à ce que je les finisse tout de suite, à moins qu’il ne dise des mensonges, sans que je sache !